When PPG Paints Arena public address announcer Ryan Mill announced the Penguins' lone goal in Thursday's 2-1 shootout loss to the Flyers, he included an unofficial third assist in the call.
"Crosby from Letang, Dumoulin, and Taglianetti!"
Mill appropriately included associate head equipment manager Jon Taglianetti when reading off the assists, because without his quick thinking, Sidney Crosby's goal would not have been possible.
The play started in the Penguins' defensive zone, when Brian Dumoulin lost his stick while the Flyers had possession. Crosby handed his stick to Dumoulin, and Dumoulin used Crosby's stick to start the breakout toward the Flyers' zone.
Crosby was without a stick as Kris Letang skated the puck up ice. But by the time Crosby was approaching the Penguins' bench after cutting across the middle of the ice, Taglianetti was standing on the bench leaning over Evan Rodrigues, with another one of Crosby's own sticks hanging over the ice:
Crosby grabbed the stick as he passed the bench and drove to the net as Letang was attempting to stickhandle around Jakub Voracek. The puck drifted to Carter Hart, who misplayed the puck and left it loose in front of the crease.
Crosby tapped the puck past Hart, then pointed to Taglianetti on the bench, who was already being mobbed by the players around him.
"A heck of a play by Tags there," Jeff Carter said. "I just saw Sid come to the bench and Tags was running around, threw him a stick. It was a great read by Sid to follow up the play and find the loose puck. That's what good players do, they find the open areas and wait for the pucks to come out of them."
"It was so great," Mike Sullivan said with a smile. "It was a real heads-up play by Tags to get Sid's stick in particular, he was able to get his stick to him at a key time. He was hanging over the boards, hanging over our players to get it out there so Sid could grab it in stride."
Taglianetti, son of former Penguins defenseman Peter Taglianetti, who was on the Stanley Cup-winning teams in 1991 and 1992, started working with the Penguins as a part-time "stick boy" in 2005, and became a full-time assistant equipment manager in the 2013-14 season. He was promoted to associate head equipment manager last season. He's been with the team for the last three Stanley Cup wins, having his name engraved on the last two.
Peter chimed in on the goal on Twitter, saying that his son has more skill:
I got lucky but @jon_taglianetti @PensEQ was way more skill!!!
— Peter Taglianetti (@PeterTags) April 16, 2021
"We have a great crew," Letang said of the equipment staff. "Sometimes if the goalie has an equipment problem or a player breaks a stick or the steel is bad on his stick, we have a crew that is pretty fast-acting guys."
That appreciation the players have for the work of the equipment staff is why they celebrated so hard for Taglianetti on the bench.
"The players went crazy on the bench," Sullivan said. "They all rallied around Tags. I was happy for him. The equipment guys, they work extremely hard for this team. They work long hours and they're as committed as our players are to try to help us win games. Those types of moments, I think are great. I'm sure it was a big moment for Tags, but it's a big moment for our team too. That's how teams become closer, and I think the raw emotion that you witnessed is an indication of how our guys feel about Tags. He's a terrific guy, and our players understand what our equipment guys, our medical staff and all these guys behind the scenes, what these guys do to help us be successful.
"I think if we would have won the game, Tags might have gotten the (MVP) helmet at the end."
